“I have just received yours, and regret that I did not
write sooner, upon a reasonable calculation

Ætat. 29.

OF ROBERT SOUTHEY.

245

that convoys
are even more uncertain than packets. A letter, per Bottle, I see by the
newspapers, thrown in on the way to the West Indies, if I recollect right, in
latitude 47, has found its way to the Isle of Sky, having travelled five miles
per day against prevalent winds—therefore a current is certain. I will
send into town for the paper, and send you the particulars in this or my next.
Do not spare bottles in your passage; and be sure that I have a letter from the
Western Isles.

“For God’s sake adapt your mode of living to the
climate you are going to, and abstain almost wholly from wine and spirits.
General Peche, an East Indian
officer here, with whom we dined on Christmas-day, told me that in India the
officers who were looking out for preferment, as a majority, &c., and who
kept lists of all above them, always marked those who drank any spirits in a
morning with an X, and reckoned them for nothing. ‘One day,’
said he,. ‘when we were about to march at day-break, I and
Captain —— were in my tent, and we saw a German of
our regiment, so I said we’d try him; we called to him, said it was a
cold morning, and asked him if he would drink a glass to warm him. I got
him a full beaker of brandy-and-water, and, egad! he drank it off. When he
was gone, I said. Well, what d’ye think; we may cross him,
mayn’t we? Oh yes, said he, cross him by all means. And the German
did not live twelve months.’ Spice is the stimulus given by
nature to hot countries, and eaten in whatever quantities can do no harm. But
the natives of all hot countries invariably abstain from spirits, as deadly.

246

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE

Ætat. 29.

Eat fruits plentifully, provided they do not produce
flux; animal food sparingly in the hot season: fish will be better than meat.
Do not venture to walk or ride in the heat of the sun; and do not be ashamed of
a parasol,—it has saved many a man’s life. I am sure all this is
very physical and philosophical sense. But I will desire King, who knows the
West Indies, to write out to you a letter of medical advice. This is certain,
that bilious people fare worst, and nervous people, for fear predisposes for
disease: from these causes you are safe.

“Edith will go
on with Madoc for you, and a
letter full shall go off for Barbadoes this week. My last set you upon a wide
field of inquiry; I know not what can be added, unless you should be at St.
Vincent’s, where the Caribs would be well worthy attention; making the
same queries of and to them as to the negroes. Of course there are no Spanish
books except at the Spanish islands. Oh! that I were at Mexico for a hunt
there! Could you bring home a live alligator? a little one, of course, from his
hatching to six feet long; it would make both me and Carlisle quite happy, for he should have him.
And tray pray, some live land-crabs, that they may
breed; and any other monsters. Birds lose their beauty; and I would
not be accessory to the death of a humming-bird, for the sake of keeping his
corpse in a cabinet: but with crocodiles, sharks, and land-crabs it is fair
play—you catch them, or they you. Your own eyes will do all that I can
direct them. How unfortunate that neither of us can draw! I want drawings of
the trees.

Ætat. 29.

OF ROBERT SOUTHEY.

247

“Thompson, the
friend of Burns, whose correspondence with him about songs fills the whole
fourth volume, has applied to me to write him verses for Welsh airs: of course
I have declined it; telling him that I could as soon sing his songs as write
them, and referring him to Harry, whom
he knows, for an estimate of that simile of disqualification. Still I am at
reviewing; but ten days will lighten me of that burthen, and then huzza for
history, and huzza for Madoc,
for I shall be a free man again! I have bought Pinkerton’sGeography after all, for the love of the
maps, having none; it is a useful book, and will save me trouble.

“We shall not think of holding any part of St. Domingo.
What has been done can only have been for the sake of what plunder was to be
found, and perhaps also to save the French army from the fate which they so
justly deserved. God forbid that ever English hand be raised against the
negroes in that island! Poor wretches! I regard them as I do the hurricane and
the pestilence, blind instruments of righteous retribution and divine justice;
and sure I am that whatever hand be lifted against them will be withered. Of
Spanish politics I can say nothing, nor give even a surmise. Here at home we
have the old story of invasion; upon which the types naturally range themselves
into a very alarming and loyal leading paragraph. Let him come, say I, it will
be a fine thing for the bell-ringers and the tallow-chandlers.

“I trust this will reach you before your departure.
Write immediately on your arrival, and afterwards

248

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE

Ætat. 29.

by
every packet, for any omission will make me uneasy. I will not be remiss on my
part

Sir Anthony Carlisle (1768-1840)
English surgeon and professor of anatomy at the Royal Academy (1808).

John Peché (d. 1823)
Lieutenant-general in the East India company who was a neighbor of Coleridge and Southey
at Greta Hall; in 1806 he contracted a bigamous marriage with a Julia Poulton, having
previously married an Ann Peché (d. in Paris, 21 January 1826).

John Pinkerton [Robert Heron] (1758-1826)
Scottish poet and antiquary patronized by Horace Walpole; editor of Ancient Scottish Poems (1786), published A Dissertation on the
Origin and Progress of the Scythians or Goths (1787) History of
Scotland (1797), Modern Geography (1802) and other
works.

Edith Southey [née Fricker] (1774-1837)
The daughter of Stephen Fricker, she was the first wife of Robert Southey and the mother
of his children; they married in secret in 1795.

Henry Herbert Southey (1783-1865)
The younger brother of Robert Southey; educated at Edinburgh University, he was physician
to George IV, Gresham Professor of Medicine, and friend of Sir Walter Scott.

Thomas Southey (1777-1838)
The younger brother of Robert Southey; he was a naval captain (1811) and afterwards a
Customs officer. He published A Chronological History of the West
Indies (1828).

George Thomson (1757-1851)
Scottish music publisher and friend of Robert Burns who solicited poems from Byron;
issued A Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs (1793).